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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Run, Slave Run!

by Terrell Clemmons, guest blogger

“Nancy Pelosi is Italian,” Rev C.L. Bryant observes, “and Rick Santorum is Italian. But yet, Nancy doesn’t attack Rick as a bad Italian for being a Republican. And Rick does not attack Nancy for being a bad Italian for being a Democrat.”

Of course they don’t, the astute observer notes. Nancy Pelosi and Rick Santorum operate out of opposing political views, and attacks and counterattacks usually have some basis in those conflicting positions. We get that.

Why does C.L. even bother to make this observation? Because when he and his fellow black conservatives speak publicly about their conservative political positions, the responses they get from black liberals are of a whole different kind. “If I believe differently than the lockstep ideology of black folks, politically,” C.L. says, “then I’m a ‘bad black guy.’ I’m a ‘sellout.’ We’re the only group of people who are ostracized - color-wise, racially - for having [our different] opinion, politically.”

C.L. (Cleon Lewis) understands ostracization. It started for him when, as an NAACP chapter president, he refused to speak at a pro-choice rally. It escalated as he reevaluated every position he had adopted from the mainstream black mindset. “When I start talking about entitlements and how a certain political agenda is being pawned off on us, there became a direct conflict … my deacons showed great disfavor with it. I lost my pulpit because a conservative viewpoint wasn’t the right message that they wanted to come from their pastor.”

C.L. relates this treatment to a phenomenon his forefathers saw as slaves on the plantation. At that time some of the more courageous slaves would, at great personal risk, run away from the plantation in pursuit of freedom in the north. And then some of those who made it, at even greater personal risk, would return bearing the wonderful news to their brothers and sisters still in bondage that they too could escape to freedom. And they had returned to help them find the way.

Some of the slaves, however, were not only uninterested in escaping to freedom, they would not stand for anyone else escaping either. There were overseers, who, though not free themselves, had adjusted to the plantation society quite comfortably, and in return for better treatment for themselves, they kept the other slaves in line. These overseers would rat out the returning liberator/conductors. They would catch them, restrain them, subdue them, and make public examples of them so that no one else would dare think about running away.

In other words, they sold themselves out to Master. Rather than reject and resist slavery for the evil, tyrannical system it was, they accepted it, cooperated with it, and participated in it. As long as a suitable position could be arranged for them personally, they had no problem with it. These are the real sellouts.

In the wake of the tragically unfortunate shooting of Trayvon Martin, mainstream black leaders are calling blacks to action. “Blacks Are Under Attack,” says Jesse Jackson, to take one example. He’s right. Blacks are under threat in America, but the threat does not come from any neighborhood watchman like George Zimmerman, nor does it come from any residual white supremacy in the north or the south. Rather, it comes from the entitlement mentality that the progressive movement is foisting off onto black (and white) America.

This is the message C.L. is taking to blacks across America this year. “There is a plantation system that I feel the progressives would put in place to enslave all of us if in fact we allow that to happen.,” he says. “And the job of the Al Sharptons, the job of the Jesse Jacksons, the Benjamin Jealouses – their jobs are to catch, restrain, subdue those of us who would be runaways – especially black conservatives – and then make public examples of us, once we’re caught, once we’re subdued, so that none of the other people who are trapped in that system will have the courage or the gall to run away. And that is why people like Herman Cain, myself, Allen West, Star Parker, Alveda King, you name them, are always dealt with so harshly by the so-called black leaders. Because we are runaways. And we have to be made public examples of to discourage anyone else who might think of leaving the system.”

C.L. left that system, and now he’s calling fellow blacks to leave it too. He’s showing his film Runaway Slave across the country to encourage blacks and whites to flee like a runaway slave and resist the encroaching tyranny. The overseers can’t break out whips and chains anymore, so they’ve resorted to the tamer tactic of insults and attempted intimidation.

It's not working. Check out C.L.’s excellent film and hop on the Freedom Train.